Dale and the Big Angry Spleen

Yesterday we celebrated 5 weeks post op 😊. My energy level is slowly improving as is concentration. Down to only a few Tylenol daily as far as pain relief.   Actually walked 2 miles the other day, trying to make that a daily thing.  Sleep is still a big issue. When I do get a decent night of sleep there is a marked improvement in healing and decrease in pain level. The initial pathology report came in from Beaumont, however there was no definitive diagnosis. They are still looking for Splenic Marginal Zone Lymphoma and have sent the slides out for an outside consultation. Here is what my cousin who is a retired pathologist had to say after I sent him the comments from the Beaumont report. I found his reply somewhat comforting. Dale, Splenic Marginal Zone Lymphoma is uncommon, low grade and indolent. If that’s what you have, it could be a lot worse (there are many types of lymphoma with much worse prognoses). I personally have never seen a case in my practice, and if I ha...

Hope all is well with everyone. We had our post op visit with the surgeon (it will be three weeks this Wednesday). He said all appears to be healing well.  He asked if I was eating....Kathy answered before I could "HE IS EATING!" 😊 Kathy finally got to ask her question of why the surgery went so quickly (a little over an hour) instead of the 3-5 hours they had predicted. The doctor explained that the images they viewed (ultrasound etc.) before surgery all looked pretty bad. The spleen was so big they were worried that it might have been cancer that had left the spleen and created adhesions (attached) to other organs etc..  When that happens it gets real complicated having to separate and  seal  everything  off   . Fortunately it didn't happen that way for us. Still waiting on the pathology report.

Of course, first I would like to thank everyone for all the love, encouragement and prayers. It's been an interesting past few days. After some steady progress I had a few days of backsliding.  Wasn't sleeping (that increased pain), sneezed a few times (that increased pain), temporarily went back on the opioid painkillers (that messed other things up and contributed to less sleep). Yesterday I decided to toughen it out without the aid of the narcotics so I could take advantage of some meds to help me sleep. Turned out to be the right decision. Except for a brief awakening at 1:30 am (with an intense craving for pizza) I managed to sleep until 8:00 am. Much improved. Hopefully the two naps I took today won't interfere with tonight's sleep. Nurse Kathy has been cautioning me I've been pushing too hard. Probably correct as usual 😊 So far my biggest challenges have been the pain, sleep and my lack of patience. On a side note.....I'm turning into my son. Ever since ...

 Dale here...Formally known as 'Dale with the Big Angry Spleen Dale'. GONE!! My first at home post! Words cannot describe how happy I am to be home with two of my beautiful loves...Nurse Kathy ❤ and my beautiful pup (canine love of my life) Tikka (my other three loves Erik, in Texas and  Elyse and Anava,  6000 miles away, ❤❤❤ Erik has gone home and I miss him already. He was a fantastic help to both Kathy and I.  Kathy misses our banter (as do I) but I also miss all the red meat he brought home to help me heal. I'm getting better daily, long conversations still wear me out, but I am increasing my walking daily. Surgery pain is subsidizing nicely (nine inch incision), now the  Evil Healing Itch is driving me crazy (any guy that has had chest/abdominal surgery understands). Had our first visit with my Beaumont hematologist/oncologist Thursday. He appears optimistic. My platelets are up to normal range, White blood count is also. Big relief. I ...

 The patient has been discharged and is home resting!

Apologies for my lack of reporting over the past day or so.  I hit the wall of exhaustion. Today I am back at it and operating on a full charge. Now, on to the patient. Dale has been making great progress. He has been walking, doing laps around the floor and making friends along the way. I envy his ability to talk to people-strangers-anyone. One of the many things I love about him. He is increasingly his pace and number of laps. Go baby go! Yesterday the JP tube was removed. That is the tube that suctioned and drained fluid from his pancreas. I spellchecked but pancreas looks wrong to me (sigh). We were really hoping he would not need to go home with that tube so that is fantastic news!  Dale has developed some very stubborn digestive difficulties and the docs are struggling to find a combination of meds that will help move things along (so to speak) as “things” are stuck and Dale is quite uncomfortable and has formed a big/little buddha belly!  Not a good situation for s...

Yesterday afternoon we found when the sun starts to lower in the western sky, it has a direct shot at Dale’s window and his eyes. We adjusted the window screen and tried to block it with a pillow but we just couldn’t get it out of his eyes.  We called for some help to see if we could turn his bed to angle it away from the window a bit. Hey…it’s on wheels and seemed like an easy solution. The aid came in and we ran our idea past her. She wasn’t stoked at the idea. Instead, she offered to give Dale a pillow case. We weren’t quite sure what that would do so I asked her Is that to tape on the window? She replied No, it’s to put on your face. Uhhhhh…nooooo. We sent her on her way and waited for the next able body to come along.  The next person to make an appearance used her muscle and got the bed moved and my honey was off to slumberland.  This morning, Dale woke after a good restful sleep NOT feeling well. A bit of chills and a very slight fever.  After some breakfast ...